


My Way or the Hyde Way

by collatorsden_archivist



Category: Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars & Related Fandoms, Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Angst, G - White Cortina, Humor, Time Period: 1973-1981 (Life on Mars), Time Period: 1981-2006 (Life on Mars), Time Period: 2006-present (Life on Mars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-07
Updated: 2008-04-07
Packaged: 2019-01-20 20:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12440589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/collatorsden_archivist/pseuds/collatorsden_archivist
Summary: Ah, the wonders of the modern age.





	My Way or the Hyde Way

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Janni, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [the Collators' Den](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Collators%27_Den), which was moved to the AO3 to ensure access and longevity for the fanworks. I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in October 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [the Collators' Den collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/collatorsden/profile).

  
Author's notes: Inspired by [this post and ensuing comments](http://community.livejournal.com/lifein1973/364295.html) over at the lifein1973 comm. :) More a scene than anything.  


* * *

Sam awoke with a start. He'd been dreaming about 2006 again, and it had been bloody awful. He had to tell someone immediately.

 

 

As was his usual habit lately, of course he thought of Annie. And thought of her some more. And stopped himself before he thought of more than he'd bargained for. Sighing, he did up the buttons on his shirt and the zips on his trousers and boots and readied himself to face another day in CID.

******

"Yes, sir, what did you want to talk about?" Annie slid into a chair across from Sam at a table in the canteen.

 

 

"I've had another dream," Sam started, spooning up a bit of treacle tart and savouring it thoughtfully.

 

 

Annie fought the urge to roll her eyes. "About what this time?" 

 

 

"Have you ever kept a diary?" Sam asked, once again focussing on Annie. 

 

 

Annie flinched slightly. It was hard to know how to react when Sam got like this. And that particular intensity in his eyes always made her vaguely uncomfortable, although not _all_ the way so. "Yes...of course, I think most girls do at some point, Sam." She laughed slightly, eyes twinkling.

 

 

"Well, where I'm from..." Sam began. 

 

 

This, by now, was one of Annie's least favourite phrases in the English language. Ever. "Hyde?" she asked, even though of course she knew the answer. But since she'd well memorised her lines by now, she thought she might as well deliver them on cue.

 

 

"Yes, Hyde." Sam shaped the word carefully in his mouth, rolling it around a bit before finally freeing it into the atmosphere. It still felt strange to say, but he'd picked up by now that it inferred a certain level of madness with which the other members of CID were comfortable. He was sure they all thought him utterly round the bend, no question, but there were _levels_. 2006 was not an acceptable level. Hyde, on the other hand, was notched up under "acceptably irritating." He was certain of it. Nearly.

 

 

"Well, where I'm from, we've got a different way of record-keeping than they do in the collators den here. Ours is a bit nicer, neater, less jumbled, more efficient..." Sam looked nearly blissful as his mind lingered on thoughts of root directories and subdirectories and LAN and WAN and...

 

 

"Let me guess, does this involve your PC Terminal?" Annie had heard about the miracles this PC Terminal bloke could perform on a regular basis; she was pretty sure she knew when one was about to start.

 

 

"As a matter of fact, it does." Sam grinned, oblivious to Annie's guileless sarcasm. "We're able to access information so much more quickly, cross-reference our files with so much less leg-work; you might say we let our fingers do the walking," Sam's grin spread to his eyes.

 

 

In spite of her exasperation with Sam's insistence on this dream world of his, Annie couldn't help but grin in return. Something about the way Sam's smiles lit up his face when he was really, truly smiling was infectious. "I still don't see what this has to do with my having had a diary," Annie managed to get out around her grin.

 

 

"Well, much like we can cross-reference files, we've got a system set up where we're able to share all sorts of documents. Sometimes it's really helpful when we're working on a case, for sharing notes and such. And sometimes it's helpful in terms of psychological purposes---right up your street---so that members of our units were able to write about what effects their cases were having on them. A bit like a diary, I suppose, although not necessarily all _Corrie_ -esque." Sam paused as Annie poked him lightly on the arm.

 

 

"We don't all write like that, Sam." Annie was reproving.

 

 

"I'm sure you don't, I just meant...oh, nevermind what I meant. Anyway, I had a dream I was writing one of those things and posting it to a larger network so more people could see it." Sam tried to explain as best he could.

 

 

"Why would you want to broadcast your thoughts and feelings to the whole world like that, Sam? Isn't the entire point of a diary that you keep it to yourself? I see where writing might help you work things out, but you might as well be a presenter on the telly if you'd want to do something like _that_!" Annie sounded very sure of herself. "Hyde must be a very strange place."

 

 

"The thing is, what I saw in my dream was me...but it wasn't. I don't know if I can explain. It was things I'd seen and felt, but muted somehow. Drab. Colourless. It was as though they'd had the life sucked out of them and been freeze-dried and then hung out for the world to see." Sam was lost in this line of thought.

 

 

"Well, you write differently for an audience, I should think. If you're writing something meant for yourself, it's not the same, is it? I still don't see why you'd want to make a diary public, though," Annie sniffed and munched her wagon wheel. 

 

 

"Why would I dream that, though?" Sam wondered aloud.

 

 

"Maybe you're hiding something, Sam?" it was Annie's turn to gaze thoughtfully.

 

 

"Well, no way I can start blogging about it now, is there?" Sam shoved himself up out of his chair. "Thanks, Annie. For everything." Impulsively, he kissed her cheek and rushed out of the canteen, leaving a puzzled Annie to wonder if she'd misheard something---after which point she would inevitably chalk it up to more Hyde strangeness in her DI and go about her business.


End file.
